The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

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On Saturday, David Segal at the New York Times had an interesting article on working conditions in Apple’s hugely profitable retail stores. The article itself, and the many of the comments that it provoked, couldn’t seem to decide whether working at Apple was hell or heaven.

Disposable employees

At one point the article seems to argue that Apple [AAPL] is an exploitative hell: it richly compensates its C-suite, while offering stressful low-paying jobs and disposes of its employees after a short time, once they are burnt out:

Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise. But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth… About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them earn about $25,000 a year. They work inside the world’s fastest growing industry, for the most valuable company, run by one of the country’s most richly compensated chief executives, Tim Cook. Last year, he received stock grants, which vest over a 10-year period, that at today’s share price would be worth more than $570 million…

“In the service sector, companies provide a little bit of training and hope their employees leave after a few years,” says Arne L. Kalleberg, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina.

Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Mr. Golson could have afforded. “I was earning $11.25 an hour,” he said. “Part of me was thinking, ‘This is great. I’m an Apple fan, the store is doing really well.’ But when you look at the amount of money the company is making and then you look at your paycheck, it’s kind of tough.”

Apple’s better-than-average conditions

Yet the article also notes that Apple’s working conditions are better than its competitors.

By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy company stock, as well as Apple products, at a discount.

A fun place to work

And despite everything, Apple is a fun place to work. 9to5Mac.com has assembled an interesting cross section of Apple workers who regret the low pay but recognize the value of having worked there:

#1 “It’s been a hell of a ride. I wouldn’t trade it for any other retail job. I’ve had an overall good experience so far, but I’ve been left wanting more. I have learned some valuable people skills and met the most incredible people (both customers and coworkers). My pay isn’t great, compared to other retail jobs in the area (according to glassdoor). We should definitely be paid more than what we are now.

#2 “My first year at Apple has been a great experience for me. The way things have been done this first year is like no other. From having fun activities with colleagues as meetings to just overall having fun coming to work… My Apple Retail experience is fun, challenging, and emotionally and mentally rewarding; I’ve been here a few years now, so this isn’t just honeymoon talk.

#3: I’ve met the most impactful people of my life while working for Apple and formed many on going friendships. Apple provides its employees with many life skills that can be used anywhere. One of the trainings I’ve attended was on par with a Master’s level Communication course. From dealing with escalated issues, facilitating group trainings, and everything in between, Apple provided skills I continue to use daily.

Are Apple’s retail stores hell or heaven?

Since Apple is notable for its successful adoption of aspects of radical management, it’s useful to put these different viewpoints in perspective.

Radical management is a management framework of principles and practices. No organization is perfectly implementing all of the principles and practices. Some organizations are implementing some of them and prospering. Many traditional organizations are implementing few, if any, of the principles and practices and are struggling.

The most important principle: delight your customers

In the case of Apple, the big plus is how well it is implementing the most important principle:

The goal of the firm is to delight its customers.

Making money is the result of achieving that goal, not the goal itself. Apple has shown how incredibly profitable it can be to devote a whole organization to that goal.

Communicate to your employees as adults

When a firm delights its customers, it can make many other mistakes and still be extremely successful. One principle that Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs consistently flouted include:

Communicate with your employees as adults.

Steve Jobs often treated his staff abominably, berating them publicly and acting in a sublimely dictatorial fashion. Yet many of his staff forgave him for his bad behavior because he was usually doing it in a good cause: deliver a better experience for the customer. His ferocious determination to look at the world through the eyes of the customer was something his employees could respect, even if the communication style was regrettable.

Compensate your employees fairly

Another important practice of radical management is to compensate your employees in a way that is perceived as fair. What is fair in any particular case will depend on the circumstances. What does seem unfair both to outsiders and to many Apple’s employees is that Apple is paying its CEO the maximum that it can get away with, while paying its retail employees the minimum that it can get away with. Clearly, Tim Cook would stay with Apple for compensation much less than $570 million, while clearly many employees leave because of the low compensation.

For the last ten years, Apple has taken advantage of the strong demand for its jobs, particularly in today’s weak economy when Apple is seen as a “cool” place to work: it has no difficulty replacing those workers that it disposes of. It has apparently made a tactical decision that the costs of selecting and training new workers is worth the turnover rate that its low pay generates.

Whether this will prove to be wise in the long term remains to be seen. Over the long haul, the advantages of a steady committed workforce should generally outweigh any short-term gains that can be made by pushing workers hard, paying them little and disposing of them when they burn out.

Some cracks already appearing

Some deviations from the principles of customer delight are already appearing. Since around 2005, Apple has started recruiting managers from stores like the Gap and Banana Republic. Employees complain about the gradual “Gapification of Apple.”

In recent years, the level of unhappiness at some stores was captured by an employee satisfaction survey known in the company as NetPromoter for Our People. It’s a variation of a questionnaire that Apple has long given to customers, and the key question asks employees to rate, on a scale of one to 10, “How likely are you to recommend working at your Apple Retail Store to an interested friend or family member?” Anyone who offers a nine or 10 is considered a “promoter.” Anyone who offers a seven or below is considered a “detractor.”

Kevin Timmer said the internal survey results last year at the Grand Rapids store were loaded with fives and sixes.

“We discussed it in a monthly meeting and our manager had tears in her eyes,” Mr. Timmer recalled. “She said something about how humbling these results were, that they want to fix any problems, that her door is always open, and so on.”

Similar figures were found in Chicago.

Although there are no commissions for sales, employees report that there are implicit pressures to sell stuff that customers don’t really want. As one commentator noted, “The only way to move up in Apple retail is to do well selling “attachments” (AppleCare, One to One). Managers are fixated on attachment rates for individuals and the store, which resulted in specialists selling them at inappropriate times just to keep management happy.”

And one former Apple worker, “Gabe” commented:

I remember being part of a team that opened a store in 2003. I was surrounded by lots of really smart and talented people. The managers realized this and let us do our thing and we ended up being one of the most successful stores in the country. Around 2005 things started to change when, as the author mentions, the store started to get gapified. New managers came in who where not used to handling retail employees who had college degrees and lots of skill. Needless to say, it didn’t go well.

Apple still has options

Because Apple delights its customers so successfully, it is extremely profitable and can easily afford to offer its workers more, either in pay or in stock. Apple itself seems to recognize this:

Even Apple, it seems, has recently decided it needs to pay its workers more. Last week, four months after The New York Times first began inquiring about the wages of its store employees, the company started to inform some staff members that they would receive substantial raises. An Apple spokesman confirmed the raises but would not discuss their size, timing or impetus, nor who would earn them.

What is at stake is Apple’s long-term future. If Tim Cook berates his employees as Steve Jobs did, pays them less than they deserve, recruits traditional managers who don’t practice the Apple way, allows managers to push products and services that customers don’t really want, and fails to rectify abuses in its supply chain in China, these shortfalls will eventually end up causing a drag on Apple’s performance. Apple would do well to rectify them now, before they fester and become permanent cultural flaws.